Question 1

Why switch from Sage to HelloBooks?

Accepted Answer

Three reasons UK customers cite most: 1) Sage Accounting Standard is £29/month with per-user limits — HelloBooks Pro is £14.99/month with unlimited users, so a 3-person team pays a third of the price. 2) HMRC MTD digital-links is enforced end-to-end on HelloBooks: every VAT box traces back to the source transaction. Sage 50 desktop users often patch this with spreadsheets, which breaks MTD digital-link compliance. 3) CIS (with the CIS300 monthly return filed direct to HMRC) and Companies House workflows are bundled on HelloBooks instead of requiring Sage Construction add-ons; PAYE / RTI payroll is coming soon.

Question 2

How does the Sage-to-HelloBooks migration work?

Accepted Answer

Export your Sage data (Sage 50: File → Export → CSV bundle; Sage Business Cloud: Settings → Data Export). Upload the bundle to the HelloBooks migration tool. Chart of accounts, customers, suppliers, products with VAT codes, opening balances, and transactions come across. The mapping screen lets you align Sage nominal codes to your HelloBooks chart before commit. Most UK SMBs complete the migration in under 2 hours; multi-year ledgers run in 4-6 hours.

Question 3

Will HelloBooks handle my Flat Rate Scheme VAT correctly?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Flat Rate Scheme is fully supported with the correct sector percentage applied to gross turnover, 1% first-year discount handling, and the 2% limited-cost-trader test built in. VAT return preview shows both the FRS calculation and the comparable Standard-scheme result so you can sanity-check the right scheme is chosen at registration time.

Question 4

What about Sage's UK-specific tools — bank reconciliation, supplier statements, aged debt?

Accepted Answer

Every Sage workflow has a HelloBooks equivalent. Bank reconciliation with auto-match, supplier statement reconciliation with PDF / OCR ingest, aged debtor / aged creditor reports with statement run, dunning sequences for chasing customers — all included on Pro. Many UK practices run their entire client roster on HelloBooks for the per-client efficiency on the CPA tier.

Question 5

Does HelloBooks support multi-company / consolidated reporting?

Accepted Answer

Yes — multi-entity consolidation for group companies, with intercompany elimination, separate VAT registrations per entity, and consolidated P&L / Balance Sheet at parent level. Included on the CPA Practice tier. Sage Group Consolidation has historically been a paid add-on at higher tiers; HelloBooks treats consolidation as standard for practice clients.

Question 6

Is the pricing comparison still accurate?

Accepted Answer

Verified against publicly listed Sage Accounting and Sage 50 pricing as of 2026. Sage changes promotional pricing seasonally; introductory discounts typically expire after 3 months. HelloBooks UK pricing (Pro £14.99/month) has held stable. Specific tier numbers reflect Sage list pricing post-discount.

Feature	HelloBooks	Sage
Starting price (GBP)	Free Plan; Pro £14.99/mo, unlimited users	Sage Accounting Start £14/mo; Standard £29/mo; Plus £39/mo; per-user fees on higher tiers
HMRC MTD VAT submission	Coming soon. VAT returns are prepared from the ledger with digital links preserved end-to-end; direct filing to HMRC from HelloBooks is not live yet	MTD-compliant; available across the cloud range
VAT schemes supported	Standard, Flat Rate Scheme (FRS), Cash Accounting, Annual Accounting — all included	Standard + Cash Accounting on lower tiers; FRS handling varies by product
CIS (Construction Industry Scheme)	CIS deduction tracking, monthly returns, verified status flags on subcontractors	Sage 50 Accounts Construction add-on required (separate licence)
PAYE / RTI payroll	Coming soon. UK payroll with RTI submissions to HMRC from HelloBooks is not live yet; keep your current payroll provider for now	Sage Payroll bundled separately from accounting; per-employee fees
Companies House confirmation statement	Annual confirmation statement workflow + filing reminder	Manual workflow; no integrated filing
AI categorisation	Built-in AI agent, 95%+ accuracy on UK bank descriptions, every plan	Sage Copilot auto-categorisation is GA and bundled in every UK plan
Per-user fees	Unlimited users on Pro at £14.99/mo flat	Additional-user fees on Plus and above; legacy Sage 50 desktop charges per-user licences
ICAEW / ACCA / AAT practice tier	Per-client pricing, batch close, unlimited firm staff, CPD-friendly audit trail	Sage Accountant Cloud separate; Sage Partner Programme tiers
Data export at cancellation	Free CSV / IIF / QBO export, 90-day read-only window	Sage 50 desktop data export to CSV; cloud export workflow more limited

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